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The Economist

10 mins | May 13, 2020

Beethoven’s triumphant career was a struggle against adversity

And so are the pandemic-hit celebrations of the composer’s 250th birthday, The Economist reflects. "Beethoven was born 250 years ago (his exact birthday is uncertain). Almost from the time he left his native Bonn for Vienna in 1792, setbacks disrupted the keyboard virtuoso’s promising career. Hearing loss struck in 1798, not a quiet slide into silence but an incessant 'squealing, buzzing and humming' in the ears. In 1802 he considered suicide, writing that 'it was only my art that held me back'. Yet that art quickly mastered the formal beauty and decorum of Haydn and Mozart before moving into an entirely new realm of innovation and unshackled self-expression."